Recently the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that by July 2005, hearing-aid compatibility will be required on at least two mobile telephone models for each protocol sold in the United States and, by 2008, fifty percent of all the mobile telephone models sold in the United States must be Hearing-Aid Compatible (HAC).
In order for a telephone to be HAC, the telephone must deliver enough magnetic field proximate the ear speaker so that the hearing-aid device, which is in T-coil mode, can pick-up the magnetic field delivered by the phone. The FCC relies on standards, such as American Natural Standards Institute (ANSI) C63.19-2001, 68 FCC part 68 (47 C.F.R. 68) and International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication (ITU-T) standards to define the requirements for hearing-aid compatibility. For example, in order for a mobile telephone to be considered compliant under the FCC ruling it must meet ANSI C63.19-2001 Category U3 radio frequency performance standards. Currently, not all mobile telephones, and certain other audio devices, being sold in the United States meet the FCC requirements and, thus, some form of device redesign will be required in order to meet the FCC requirements. While many possible solutions for redesign exist they must be able to compete with the current trends in mobile telephone manufacturing, in particular, decreasing size of the mobile telephone and decreasing cost of the units. Thus, in order for a solution to the magnetic field problem to be viable, the solution must minimize the amount of space it will occupy within the mobile telephone housing (i.e., handset, headset or other such housing) and it must be an economically feasible solution that will not impart any unnecessary additional costs to the unit price of the mobile telephone. The space minimization concern becomes exasperated as more and more features are added to the mobile telephone platform and many other handheld audio devices.
Thus, a need exists to develop an apparatus and method for increasing the magnetic field within a mobile telephone. The desired device and method should increase the magnetic field such that it meets the hearing-aid compatibility requirements mandated by the FCC. Additionally, the desired device and methods should be size compatible with current trends in mobile telephone manufacturing. In this regard, the desired device should increase the magnetic field without having to increase the size of the mobile telephone and, in particular the size of the ear speaker. Also, the desired device and method should be economically feasible, in that, it should minimize unnecessary additional costs related to manufacturing.